


A Second chance After The World Ends

by EllowynTheNotKing



Series: Apocalypse at the hands of the readers [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Another go, Choose Your Own Adventure, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags to be added, Will be a long series, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2019-11-17 16:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18102020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllowynTheNotKing/pseuds/EllowynTheNotKing
Summary: You remember how some choices may leave you. but now you have a second chance.After a long night, you choose to stay at home instead of going to work. Is that a good choice or a very bad one?





	1. Chapter 1

Staying up late is every child’s dream but every adult’s hated reality. There’s a reason adults want to go to bed early, it’s because we’re always tired. Tired from work, tired from going out, tired from not doing anything, tired from doing seemingly everything. Being an adult is tiring.

If you had known what the next day would bring you would have gone to bed far earlier than you did. As it is you’ll be running on roughly four hours of sleep anyway. The jarring beeping from your alarm clock at the feelingly ungodly hour of six in the morning rouses you. Today, given the option, you would choose to go back to bed. But that’s not too out of the norm for you. Ever since you came up with the  _ brilliant _ idea of taking some work home to do it there you haven’t been getting enough sleep. You have no idea how your coworkers do it, how the hell is Susan so happy? She’s always happy and you know she’s getting about the same amount of sleep as you.

Debating with yourself you get up momentarily -nature always calls when you’re at your comfiest- before sitting on the edge of your bed. The pounding in your head begs you to go back to sleep, but you really don’t have any more paid sick days, and you should really get the reports, the ones that kept you up all night, in to your boss before nine. 

It doesn’t take long for you to decide what you’re going to do. After all, all the decisions have already been made for you, you just have to pick. 

With very, very little thought you turn back to your bed and crawl back in. You’ll send an e-mail to your boss at a more reasonable hour. Within minutes you’re back in the world of pleasant dreams and warmth. 

That is to say, you sleep for a while longer, perhaps a couple of hours. You sleep long enough to feel less groggy and spiteful, but still more than a little angry at whoever is banging on your door with what sounds like a small battering ram. 

Still a little groggy you flip on the coffee maker as you meander to the door through the kitchen. Stopping at the door you’re more than a little surprised to see that it seems to be in good shape despite the pounding on it. 

Looking through the peephole you see your neighbor Dana. She looks terrified as she bangs on your door. You don’t know her that well, but she brought over some pastries when you moved in, and the two of you often exchange pleasantries whenever you bump into each other. 

You can hear her saying something, you’re not sure what though, over the pounding in your head, her pounding on the door, and the quietness of whatever she’s trying to say. With the pain in your head and how loud she’s being, you aren’t sure whether answering the door or ignoring it would be worse. 

Sighing you rub your head and go to get some aspirin from the bathroom, before deciding what to do.

The pounding in your head is too much, you decide to  not answer the door , she’ll think you aren’t home soon enough and go try to bother someone else.

You feel kinda bad about how scared she looks,  you let her in, but it’s only for a little bit, you took the day off for a reason.


	2. Peace and Quiet?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pounding in your head is too much, you decide to not answer the door, she’ll think you aren’t home soon enough and go try to bother someone else.

Ignoring the banging on the door you go back into the kitchen and pour yourself your first cup of joe for the day. Sure enough within a few minutes, Dana has wandered onto a different door, her knocking gets quieter before it disappears entirely. 

Deciding that since you’re taking the day off you’re going to do it properly you make yourself a full breakfast. The kind that you had as a kid but haven’t really had since you moved away from home. 

Evidently, those many days of just coffee for breakfast actually have been affecting you. Soon enough you’re stuffed and there’s a lot still left on the table. With a shrug you leave it there, it’s not like it’s going anywhere.

You grab your laptop and shoot off a message to your boss that you won’t be in today, some kind o flu, and that you’ll email them the files later. Then, without an ounce of guilt, you flop onto the large fluffy chair -you had long ago decided it was better than a couch- and flip on the TV, only to find that all of the Stations are broadcasting some emergency broadcast. You are advised to lock windows and doors and to stay inside until further notice.

The broadcast doesn’t say much, it just repeats the first statement. You quickly get up and go check your door -locked as always- and then your windows -despite being on the 12th story- before sitting back down and turning off your TV.

Picking up the laptop again you do a little web surfing to see if you can find out what’s happening and how long it’s going to last. Sadly none of the major networks are broadcasting and no forums or stuff like that have popped up yet. 

With a look back at the food on your table, you get up to put it away. You really have no idea how long this is going to last and you’d rather not go hungry during it. Turns out your decision to stay home today was a good one.  

Your stay in your apartment lasts hours, and you pace. 

Your stay in your apartment lasts days, and you begin to run out of food. The news hasn’t changed.

Your stay in your apartment lasts into the second week, you’re out of food but you’ve heard someone or something wandering around the hall the last few days. 

Now you have a new choice to make, will you wait for the emergency to be lifted or will you go and see if any of the neighbors have stayed out and have food?

 

If you think the emergency with will be lifted soon you can  choose to stay home , this’ll all be over soon, then you can go to the store.

 

You could also  go pick over neighbors , you know that at least the one around you have been really quiet and they probably aren’t home.


	3. Where Could You Get Food on a Day Like This?

Flipping through the stations, of the ones that are still airing content most are still cycling the first emergency broadcast. They obviously aren’t going to change it anytime soon. 

You have nothing left to eat, your options at this point are to scavenge or to starve, and you aren’t about to let yourself starve to death. 

You aren’t sure who’s been moving around in the hall, but you’re fairly certain no one’s been moving around in the apartments next to yours. You don’t know anything about the disease that’s apparently so dangerous, but you don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. 

You don’t really have any disease protection stuff. Really at best you have some gloves in your first aid kit, but you aren’t sure how this disease is spread and if that’ll be good enough. You think you read somewhere that getting a t-shirt damp and then covering your nose and mouth with it was a good airborne illness preventer, but you aren’t sure. 

You decide to stay on the safe side and grab your gloves and do the thing with a t-shirt. You also grab a backpack that you keep in the closet and empty it, if nothing else you can use it to carry anything useful you find from the neighbor’s back to your place. 

Once you’re all ready you stand by the door for a while, first listening for anybody outside, then trying to talk yourself back into going. 

You sneak out into the hall, you look both ways down the hall, but now you need to figure out which way to go. 

 

Go to  the right , who knows what you’ll find! 

 

Or you could  go left . You know that one of the neighbors to the left were on vacation, so there might not be much food, but maybe they left something useful?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the delay! College has been absolutely crazy making recently.


	4. Chapter 4

Left, right, left, right, left. 

You decide left with only the smallest bit of eeny moeing. You creep along to your left. Getting to the door in what could have been a century or a few seconds. It’s more likely to be the later, but it sure felt like the former as you had been listening ever so intently as you crept. 

Once at the door you momentarily panic as you can’t figure out how to open the door. You test the knob just in case, but it doesn’t yield. 

Quietly cursing yourself you go back to your own apartment. 

How is it that you didn’t think far enough ahead to how you were going to open the door?

Once back in your apartment you look everywhere you can to see if there is anything you could use to get into the other apartments. Now you wish you had bothered trying to get to know your neighbors a little better, maybe they would have given you a spare set of keys to take care of pets or fish or something. 

Finally, you find a crowbar of dubious origin, you don’t remember buying it but it’ll definitely be of use now. 

You stand before your door, psyching yourself up again. Finally, you back into the hall heading to the door immediately to the left of your own. 

You listen for a few long seconds at the door, listening for anything. You hear some sounds from downstairs. But you don’t think anything of it. It doesn’t sound like there’s anyone in the apartment, so with a quick look around you do what you need to. 

It’s surprisingly hard to get the door open. You figure any previous practice would have made it easier, or maybe some decent muscles, but you’re pretty sure this is another thing that movies made seem easier. 

The crack of the door is almost earsplittingly loud, but you do get it open in a fairly short amount of time. 

You listen at the door for a moment, but no one’s come forward to tell you off. You do your best to close the door behind you, but you’ve kinda busted it, so you just do your best to close it. 

You do a left-hand search pattern of the apartment, checking for anything that might be useful and if there are people who are sick. 

This place wasn’t really worth breaking into, there are a few cans of food, but overall it looks like the place has either already been ransacked or the neighbors were moving out. They don’t have any medical supplies, there are a couple of too-thin blankets, nothing that could be used for self-defense. 

You want to yell or maybe do something violent, but you need food and you need to get back to your place.  

Sighing softly you pack the too few cans into your bag followed by the blankets. You look around the apartment one last time, hoping something, anything worthwhile will suddenly appear. But nothing does. 

You creep back to your apartment and empty the bag onto the kitchen counter. The food will last maybe two days if you reaaaaally stretch it, but you’re going to search through other apartments as soon as possible. The blankets go into your bedroom, they may be thin, but something’s better than nothing. 

You make yourself a can of food for dinner, then you try to make a plan of what to do. The other apartments are probably unoccupied. You were probably one of the very few people to be home at the time of the outbreak. Maybe some other people left a lot of food in their homes. Maybe you’ll get lucky at the next apartment, find fluffy blankets and plenty of food. 

You sleep deeply that night, the minor adrenaline rush from earlier had wiped you out. 

First thing you do with the new day is to make yourself some food, half a can is all you can make yourself eat. One part nerves and a part excitement and a part worry for your food supply make it hard to eat. You tell yourself you’ll eat the rest when you get back with more food. 

The backpack and prybar are gathered quickly enough. You take a few minutes to psych yourself up before going to the door to listen for anything. 

There’s no movement, no noises that you can decern from within your apartment. You slit the door open before going out fully. You look to the right, think about seeing if there’s any food that way, but ultimately decide to stick to the righthand search pattern. 

You stay close to the wall and pray silently that you don’t make any noise. Nothing seems to be nearby but you listen intently anyway. 

The second apartment to the left is terribly quiet when you listen in. No movement, nothing. Bracing yourself you crack the door to this apartment too. 

Shutting it quickly you lean against it, just in case, listening for movement outside. 

Just as you’re about to sigh with relief a small voice behind you asks, “What are you doing?” 

You swing around, fairly certain that if you had a gun you probably would have just shot who you now see is a fairly small child. The boy looks to be around five or seven. You vaguely recall seeing him and his family move in a few weeks ago. You kept meaning to introduce yourself, it’s only the neighborly thing to do, but you just never got around to it. Now you really wish you had if only so you knew this kid’s name. 

You flounder trying to come up a valid reason to be in this child’s apartment, you figure if there were an adult in the apartment you would have seen or heard them by now. 

 

The kid’s obviously been alone you could take him under your wing, see what you could do for both of you. But then, kids are a lot of work and you probably shouldn’t be left to deal with a child on your own. 

 

This kid has probably been alone for weeks at this point, they look fairly small, you could probably just steal the food from the kitchen. This boy already looks half staved anyway, he probably doesn’t know how to operate the can opener. Honestly, he’s probably going to die anyway, you could just take the food and leave. It’s not like it would matter. 

  
This kid’s all alone, and you’re really not parenting material , but stealing from a little kid feels like going too far. You’ve wrecked the door, but you could just leave, check the next apartment and pretend you were never here. Leave the kid’s fate to the Fates. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, I've been a busy bee who could not keep up with most of my workload.


	5. How to act around children

Kids are a lot of work, but he’s on his own. You could let the fates decide or just take everything. But you always hated when the babies got killed in nature shows. 

You try to remember everything you know about talking to kids, or parenting stuff, anything so this kid doesn’t start crying or screaming. You get down, not kneeling, but squatting down so you’re on almost the same level as the kid. You think that’s one of the things you’re supposed to do. 

“Hey…” You try, realizing you don’t know the kid’s name you awkwardly pause before picking back up, “Kid.” Really? 

Then as your legs start cramping, you introduce yourself. You really should stretch more. Standing now, you ask his name in return.

He looks at you bashful all of a sudden, “Mama says not to talk to strangers.” 

You freeze, oh no, the stranger danger problem, how are you not a stranger? Panic time! “Well, uh, you see, I’m not a stranger. I’m your neighbor, therefore you know, not a stranger.” 

The boy pauses, nods, then beams at you, “My name’s Bobby!” He holds his hand out for you to shake. 

You shake it, “Hello Bobby.” 

You look around, this apartment has a pretty identical layout to your own. A few steps and yep, there’s the kitchen. It looks pretty much like you expected a place with only a little kid and no adult supervision to look. 

It's obvious messes have been made and shoddily cleaned up, toys lay around, there are a bunch of puddles of something leaking out of the fridge, probably best not to open that right now. 

“So Bobby. Do you have a really cool backpack?” You decide to try talking to him while you start pulling anything and everything that could be considered food out of the cupboards. 

“Yeah! My mommy got it for me for school!” You nod, there’s a lot of cans of food, and a lot of jars of food with flowing handwriting on the top. 

“Why don’t you go get it and you can show me!” 

The boy- Bobby. His name is Bobby- runs deeper into the apartment. You pull out a lot of cans and jars of food. You’re going to have to make multiple trips. This is great! look s like the mom was a fan of home canning. The jars you can probably move with some clothes around them, maybe some blankets? The cans the kid -Bobby- could carry some of the cans, but he’d want a few toys too, and could you keep him quiet? You’re going to have to take him with you to your apartment, you broke the door on your way in here. Where are you going to put him? He could sleep on the couch-

“See! It’s a Batman one cause Batman’s the best Superhero!” The- Bobby. Bobby shows you his backpack that looks pretty much brand new. It seems like it’s empty. 

Does he have clean blankets? “Hey buddy, wanna show me your room?”

“Okay!” He takes your hand and leads you back. His room is also a mess. But at least he’s tried to pick up in here. His bed looks like he’s crawled in more than a little dirty a couple of times. Okay, second option. 

You open up the door to what has to be his parent’s room. It’s spotless comparatively. The bed and the blankets on it are huge. This may be a problem. You root around a little in the room and on the bed. There are some thinner blankets, those should work, you grab them, along with the various dagger looking knives you find around the room. You take them into the kitchen and leave them on the table. Bobby has been following you as you do this, he doesn’t say anything, just watches you closely. You might be able to wrap up half a dozen of the jars and put them in his bag, but will he be able to carry that much weight?

Maybe you should feed him? You should probably try to eat something as well. 

You feed Bobby and get him to come with you back to your apartment. He’s a little anxious of leaving his home, but you ultimately convince him. 

The longer you spend with Bobby the more you like him. He’s a smart kid, and he can take care of himself for the most part. That’s good for when you go to search for food. You definitely have to clean more than you used to, and you’ve made a few trips back to the other apartment to get things that he wanted. 

You still keep listening for anything that might be outside. You keep catching yourself watching the bottom of the door leading out of the apartment more and more. When it was just you. You didn’t do that, but since Bobby’s been living with you you feel like you need to better secure the apartment. You never thought you’d have much parenting instinct, but you want to take care of him and make sure nothing happens to him. You want to spend time with him not just to keep him alive but to learn more. You even read with him most nights. It’s strangely nice, curling up together, sometimes you read to him, sometimes he reads haltingly to you. 

A few weeks go by while you sneak around. There are a few close calls, a few times where you almost get caught, or you have to brace a door closed to avoid them. 

You clear out most of the floor when the water stops. It doesn’t run out of the kitchen or the bathroom, it just stops. You aren’t completely sure why, but you bet that no one’s working to make sure this kind of stuff keeps working. It’s a miracle the gas for the stove still works. You’re at a cross road. 

 

You could try to leave the building, maybe you could run? There have to be places nearby with water.

 

Or maybe try the other taps on this floor? Or maybe the next. No one else has been using water in the building, you might be able to get some.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been busy? I'll try to be faster.


	6. What does water bring?

You test your taps each a couple of times, maybe they have water that just needs a little coaxing to come out? That doesn’t work, but you didn’t really expect it to. 

You grab some water bottles you’ve got around (you aren’t sure where most of them came from have they been breeding in your cupboards?) and stuff them in a backpack. While gathering everything you’ll need, you’re trailed by Bobby. You’ve taken him with you to his apartment a couple of times, but overall have left him in your apartment for safety reasons. This time you could bring him with to carry some water, make him work for his stay. 

After thinking about it, you decide to leave Bobby in your apartment for the time being. You don’t even know if there’s going to be any water anywhere on this floor, or any of the others for that matter!

What’s the best way to keep him from worrying? Put him down for the night. 

Bobby’s a good kid, he rarely fights you about going to bed. But today he’s anxious, he calls for you multiple times before finally succumbing to sleep. And then you’re anxious, and you check on him a few times to ensure that he’s actually asleep and that he probably won’t wake up while you’re gone. 

After placing everything by the door you check on him one last time. Watching him sleep for a long moment, you never expected to get so close to this kid, but you’re glad you found him. He’s so small under the covers on your bed. There’s no spare bed to put him in and the idea of waking him up in the middle of the night worried you too much to put him on the couch. 

Unlocking the door and picking up the backpack in one motion you look back towards your bedroom before closing the door behind you as quietly as you can manage. 

Stealth is the name of the game, and it’s a whole lot easier to sneak along now since you’ve already popped all the locks on the doors. The apartment right next door still has some water in the taps, enough at least for the water bottles you brought with. You look at the water in your bag and know this won’t last as long as you want or need it to. 

Bottles, buckets, even jars would probably work, you won’t stoop to bowls, those just aren’t worth the trouble of trying to transport. A couple of water bottles make their way to the surface of the mess, those get filled and tossed in your bag. There are some snap lid containers you can steal from this apartment. You fill those too, they’ll leak some, but if you move fast you shouldn’t lose too much. There are no convenient buckets, sadly, but you should have enough water for a couple of days with all this. 

The walk back to your apartment is nerve-wracking, it’s always nervewracking despite the lack of the, the  _ things _ . You haven’t seen any of them in a while. You contemplate where they could be as you find any big containers you have to hold to water here. Best bet is they’re all on the ground floor and/or they’ve managed to make their way out of the building. 

Certainly good for you and the kid, but that just means it’s going to be more dangerous the lower down you get. 

The water ends up being almost a couple gallons, but when you put it next to the food. Suddenly everything looks so very bleak. 

The food and water will only last so long. You’ve already cleared this floor of food, it’s only a matter of time before it’s cleared of water too. There are only so many floors in this building. Only so much food, only so much water. Not enough for more than a couple of months. Months were good, but no exact numbers, and you can’t keep the kid locked in the building forever. You’ll both have to leave sometime. 

Bobby’s still asleep when you check on him, thank god for hard sleeping little kids. 

Now, what to do? 

You’ll spend the next few days gathering as much food and water as you can, hopefully with enough around you you’ll think a little more clearly about the future. 

The nest of a bed that the couch is is good enough to sleep on. You’ll have to figure out what to bring with you when you leave, blankets, food, water, weapons- 

Not right now. 

Those are things that can be focused on later. For now, you need to sleep tomorrow you can start worrying. 

The next week blurs as you spend the days getting water from your floor and the nights getting food from the floors below. The adrenaline and cracks of doors and silent prayers to anyone or things that’ll listen that there’s something in the cupboards, in the taps, and soft words of reassurance to Bobby and yourself and the soft raps of your knuckles and the growls and groans of the  _ things _ from below. 

In theory, at least the amount of food and water stashed away in your apartment should last a couple of months, but will you be able to last that long? 

The next few days drag on achingly slowly. Reading, playing with Bobby, cooking, cleaning, sleeping. All activities you can do in the more and more false feeling security of your apartment don’t keep your attention for as long and seem to be more irritating than distracting now. 

You have to leave. You can’t stay in the building when there could be- _them,_  the  _ things _ just downstairs, they could be right down the hall right now. You and Bobby aren’t really safe here. You know it, he knows it, it’s time to go. 

 

The _things_ tend to react to noises. You could try to hoof it, you’d be a lot quieter but you wouldn’t be able to carry as much.

 

But you spent a lot of time, like a  _ lot _ of time getting all the supplies, and while it would take multiple trips you could probably get it all down to one of the cars. At least a couple of your neighbors left a car or two at the building.


	7. Chapter 7

After some thought, you realize you’d have to be insane to leave all the supplies you’d found. You’ve broken into about every room on this floor. And the next. You have enough supplies, of food at least, to possible last a month or so. The problem is you need water. There's not easily accessible water here, so you need to leave in a car.

But how many cars are downstairs?

You're going to have to go allllllll the way down to the basement, probably multiple times.    You can do this! First, you have to figure out if you have the right keys to one of the cars down there.

Assuming there are cars down there.

NO! There are cars down there! There's no way you were the only person who stayed home. And you know for a fact just about every household in this building has a car or some form of transportation.

How to do this though?

You don't know what most of your neighbors' cars look like.

Briefly, you wish you had another person, a rational, thinking adult person to talk to. Bobby is a good kid, but you can't plan things with him. What if you scared him? Nightmares are something you're kind of worried about for him, but, what if he tries to run away? Then, the _things_ , might get him!

That's not the problem right now.

To get out of the building you need a car. You don't know what cars may or may not be downstairs.

Keys!

At least a couple of the neighbors left a pair of keys behind. You could get all the keys left behind and try any and all cars left behind! Perfect!

Now the only thing left to do is wait for Bobby to go to sleep.

You spend the day playing with Bobby, he needs to be utterly exhausted by tonight. You absolutely cannot risk him waking up while you're gone.

He asks for multiple stories before settling down to sleep. Maybe he sense's that you're planning to do something dangerous, but who knows.

Finally, he's asleep. But for a long time, probably too long, you sit on the couch. Listening and watching for any sign that Bobby isn't asleep. That he'll come out and ask for a glass of water or another story.

But he doesn't and finally, finally, the time comes to leave the apartment. Your bag only has a couple of small soft blankets. They should muffle the sounds of the keys that get tossed in later. The crowbar has never left its place in your hand while outside the apartment, and you don't plan for it to do so anytime soon.

You haven't listened this intently for the things in a while.

Now is not the time to be caught by surprise.

Ears perked for any noise that would give away you or one of the things you make your way around this floor.

Some of the keys are left in plain sight, no one wants to forget their keys first thing in the morning. Some are on the ground. Some are in bedrooms. A few in the kitchen or couch.

There are forty apartments between the two floors you've checked but you've only found a dozen sets of keys.

You stop in your apartment again. Who knows what time it is, it's late you know that much. You could go downstairs, but you aren't sure if you're prepared to do that yet.

No, not tonight. Tomorrow night. You'll do it then. You really don't have another choice.

The keys are emptied from of the bag, the water bottles and other liquid carrying devices are tossed back in. Tonight more water, you'll need it before you start carrying the foodstuffs up and down the stairs.

Multiple trips now for fewer trips later, you decide.

Soon everything in the apartment that can hold water is, and then some. You don't bother with making sure everything is in closable containers. Everything that's not you'll drink before you leave, and the stuff that is closable will be the last trip downstairs. All kinds of things that normally wouldn't hold water for extended periods will for tonight. Including an old laundry tote that is technically waterproof.

As you settle into the nest that the couch has become, the first pre-dawn rays of sunlight breach the horizon. You're certainly up far later than you planned to be, but it'll be worth it, you know it will.

Midday light streams through the windows when awareness returns to you. Bobby is curled up next to you in the nest. He seems to be recreating the eating habits of the T-rex, complete with sound effects and the begging of the stegosaurus in his other hand. Waking up to other people has never been your favorite thing, but admittedly waking up this way isn't too bad.

Bobby has spilled water and evidently, attempted to clean up the spill. There's still a lot of water on the ground, but there's nothing to do about it at this point but avoid the puddles. Today is spent gathering up all the supplies currently in the apartment. And figuring out how many trips are going to be needed to get everything downstairs. So far you figure it's going to be at least ten trips, maybe more.

But you can do this.

Bobby helps with sorting, but he won't be able to help you get everything downstairs. That's not true. He can help with the very last load. That way you don't have to come back up for him. That load's going to be mostly, well only water.

Wait!

You're going to need clothes and blankets too! Plus other supplies!

You only just keep yourself from cursing aloud as you think of everything you'll need in addition to the food and water. You've got a few changes of clothes for Bobby here in the apartment, but you really might as well start fresh for him. All of the clothes here are kinda rank at this point.

Bobby'll need to pick out his own clothes for the trip to- ... Well, where ever you'll eventually go. But that's a problem for once you're in a car and on the road.

Bobby and his backpack are set up quickly. He never fights when it's time to go places, then he watches as you make sure you have what you need for the quick run to his apartment.

You hype yourself up a little while making sure he's calm. Which he is. He always is. He's yet to have any real reason to be afraid; so long as you don't leave him alone while he's awake.

The two of you play the quiet game walking to the apartment. Different rules than when you were a kid that's for sure.

Once there the two of you pick out a few days worth of clothes for him, superhero shirts all the way. He talks about his favorites as you fold the clothes as small as possible and stick them in the bottom of his bag. The backpack is about half full when you finish, which to your critical and space needing eye is entirely too full. You take out two full sets of clothes, leaving behind three full sets, and hope that'll be enough for him. 

Mom and Dad's room doesn't produce anything useful this time, just like every other time you've thought to check there. Neither does the rest of the apartment. Part of you is still glad you've double-checked.

Bobby and you sit at the kitchen table, taking his hands you look around his apartment for what you know will be the last time.

"Bobby." He looks in your eyes with complete trust. "It's time to say goodbye to this apartment."

"Why?"

"Because soon we're going to leave this building to see if we can find someplace better."

"Like where?" He looks a little afraid, and you know where he's coming from, but you aren't sure yourself.

"Where ever the road takes us." Deep breath in. You smile a kindly as your face can manage, "But right now we're saying goodbye to the apartment."

He nods. "How do we do that?"

"We treat it like when we say thanks for a gift. Repeat after me, 'Thank you very much Apartment!'"

"Thank you very much Apartment!"

"'We will always remember you and the safety you gave us.'"

"We will always remember you and the safety you gave us," Bobby repeats each word with only the solemness a child can manage.

"And now we grab the last of our things and leave. You ready?" releasing Bobby's hands, you stoop to pick up your bag.

He makes a noise of agreement and gets off his chair. Together you walk towards the door.

Pausing at the door for any untoward sounds, you tell Bobby to say goodbye one last time. He does so, and the two of you leave.

Once back in your apartment you start shuffling around the piles of supplies currently strewn about. Your clothes can probably be taken down last or next to last. Blankets are fairly important but it's not that cold outside yet, you probably only need one or two. The crowbar will work as your weapon, but you'll need that going up and downstairs, so you'll need at least one hand open at all times.

Each adjustment makes the piles a little smaller but ends with there being even more loads than there had been previously.

But now you're getting ahead of yourself again. You need to go downstairs and make sure that there's actually a vehicle that can carry everything you want downstairs. But that'll have to wait for tonight. The keys go in the backpack for you to pull out later. All in a more accessible pocket.

Bobby can't be left alone, not again. You'll need armor before going into the basement, you can't risk getting whatever is making these things the way they are. What's good armor against normal humans? Thick clothes? Blue jean material!

You have an old jean jacket in your closet that was for a costume party! It fits perfectly, and no matter how hard you try you can't get your teeth through the material. This should work great! The steel-toed boots that go with the jacket are buried in the back of the closet but still fit perfectly as well. These'll be perfect armor, and they're both "normal" clothes so they don't even make a lot of extra noise.

Now you have your armor. Hopefully, you won't have to test the effectiveness of the armor anytime soon, but it's still good to have no matter what.

Dinner is a bigger meal than normal, but you tell yourself and Bobby it's so you have the strength to move everything tomorrow. It's also a little so that you don't have to carry as much down with you later tonight.

Bobby doesn't go to bed very quickly. He's up multiple times for water and to use the bathroom, and requests more than a couple of stories. Part of you knows he's stalling, but the rest of you lets him stall you. You don't want to go downstairs yet.

But eventually, he can't keep his tired eyes open, and eventually, you know he's too deeply asleep to wake up anytime soon.

It's time to go.

A few last-minute test shakes of you bag produce little to no noise, both exactly and nowhere near what you want. Trustly crowbar in hand, it's time to leave the relative safe haven of your apartment.

Down the stairs, you slip. No longer do you listen anxiously at the top of each flight. The treading of your steps has become so quiet over the last weeks that you no longer truly worry about being heard.

In some halls, you hear the noises of the trapped creatures. They sound broken and defeated and hungry and angry all at once.

The pitches and levels of noise change only with distance, and not with your passing.

They don't notice you.

Far too soon you reach the bottom-most floor.

Far too soon you're in the midst of a horror film. The walls and floors are covered and spattered with blood and other. A half gone corpse lays twisted and torn apart near an exit only door. You know the face of the body, bloated and purple as it is. The horribleness of this touches you as you look upon the body of someone you knew, a neighbor, who you will never speak to again.

Sickness rises in you like a tsunami wave, sudden and seemingly from nowhere. Dinner makes a second appearance against the closest blood-spattered wall.

You spend a few long moments gagging before finally pulling yourself away from the scene.

The door to the garage in the basement is nearby, lucky for you, and the room is blissfully quiet and cool. Breathing deeply and evenly is hard to do, but eventually, you manage both.

Scoping out the garage is reasonably easy there are more than a couple of cars in here but overall the room is deserted.

All of the keys have the type of car they belong to on them, making the job od figuring out what options you have a little easier. Matching types you find a few sets of keys are worthless and toss them accordingly. As for the rest, there seem to be at least a couple for each type.

So begins the trial and error of trying each key that matches a car.

After what feels like hours, but is probably only one at max you match a key to a business van in the back. The side of the van promotes a furniture moving company you vaguely recall the neighbor you left in the hall talking about working for.

A wave of nausea tries to consume you once more at the memory, but you swallow it down and breath through it.

The back of the van is empty, but the inside is accessible from the front, and there are two seats. Just the right number you need for now.

Briefly, you think about turning it on, just to check, but considering that you haven't gotten into any other vehicle, this is really your best and only bet. But you might as well move it closer to the door.

The other sets of keys get tossed into other corners of the room, and the van, despite being a little growly initially, turns on. Before turning it off, you note the gas tank is half full, hopefully, that'll be enough to get you where you're going.

You don't look at the body when returning upstairs. You manage to avoid looking at it each time you have to pass by as you take all your supplies downstairs. Once most of the food and water is taken downstairs, you make a brief detour to get duck tape. Which you then use to tape the foodstuffs against the walls of the van to keep them from rolling all over the place.

The blankets you plan to use tonight and a couple of things for breakfast are left upstairs.

The sky begins to lighten around the edges as you tumble into bed. Well, the couch that was your bed for a while.

All that's left for you now is deciding where you'll go in the morning.

 

There was that ranch you went to a kid. If there are people there they might be able to help you and Bobby. 

 

Although who knows what kind of people would be at the ranch? Or even if there are people there? You could go to your friends' house! They're out in the country and basically grow all of their own food and everything! They'd totally be happy with taking you and Bobby in.

  
Well, maybe. Your friends aren't really the best with, around, or about kids. But your folks might be a better option, they might not know what's going on but they could probably help you figure out where to go next.

**Author's Note:**

> The first person to comment gets to pick where the story goes.  
> Always looking for prompts, horror prompts will likely be answered sooner.   
> If you can think of any tags that fit this story please comment/message me.


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